Current time in Houston
Houston, Texas, United States, keeps Central Standard Time: UTC-06:00 in winter and UTC-05:00 in summer.
Current time in Houston
09:22:06
America/Chicago · UTC-06:00
Time zone in Houston
Sunrise and sunset in Houston
Sun and clock in Houston
Averaged over the year, solar noon in Houston comes at 12:21, because the city lies about 5° west of the meridian its clock is set to.
America/Chicago is named after Chicago, 1,520 km to the north-east. The sun crosses the meridian over Houston 31 minutes later than over Chicago, although the two clocks always agree.
Daylight through the year in Houston
The latest sunrise of the year, 07:39 on November 6, comes on the last morning before the clocks go back, so it is darker than any midwinter morning.
On the same clock, the sun rises in Houston anywhere from 2 min earlier to 1 h 6 min later and sets anywhere from 4 min earlier to 1 h 4 min later than in Chicago, depending on the date, and Houston’s longest day is 1 h 10 min shorter than Chicago’s.
Cairo (30.0°N) and Kuwait City (29.4°N) lie on almost the same parallel as Houston, so their days stay within 2 minutes of Houston’s all year; the clock in Cairo is 8 h ahead of Houston for most of the year and 7 h ahead of Houston for part of it, and in Kuwait City 8 h or 9 h ahead of Houston, depending on the date.
| Date | Sunrise | Sunset | Day length |
|---|---|---|---|
| November 15 | 06:46 | 17:26 | 10 h 40 m |
| December 15 | 07:09 | 17:24 | 10 h 15 m |
| January 15 | 07:18 | 17:44 | 10 h 26 m |
| February 15 | 07:01 | 18:10 | 11 h 9 m |
| March 15 | 07:31 | 19:29 | 11 h 58 m |
| April 15 | 06:55 | 19:48 | 12 h 53 m |
| May 15 | 06:29 | 20:07 | 13 h 39 m |
| June 15 | 06:21 | 20:23 | 14 h 3 m |
| July 15 | 06:31 | 20:24 | 13 h 53 m |
| August 15 | 06:49 | 20:03 | 13 h 14 m |
| September 15 | 07:06 | 19:28 | 12 h 21 m |
| October 15 | 07:23 | 18:51 | 11 h 28 m |
When the clocks change in Houston
Houston follows the North American rule: clocks go forward on the second Sunday in March and back on the first Sunday in November, at 02:00 local time in each zone.
Houston has no tz database entry of its own: it keeps America/Chicago, named after Chicago. The database promises that the two clocks have agreed since 1970, and makes no claim for the years before. The rules that entry follows, and how long they have applied, are on the Chicago page.
| Date | Change | New offset |
|---|---|---|
| March 14, 2027 | Forward one hour: 02:00 becomes 03:00 | UTC-05:00 |
| November 7, 2027 | Back one hour: 02:00 becomes 01:00 | UTC-06:00 |
Calling Houston from another time zone
| Place | Houston’s 09:00–17:00 there | Shared working hours | Over the next 12 months |
|---|---|---|---|
| UTC | 15:00–23:00 | — | — |
| New York | 10:00–18:00 | 7 h, 09:00–16:00 Houston time | always 7 h |
| London | 15:00–23:00 | 2 h, 09:00–11:00 Houston time | 2 h to 3 h |
| Tokyo | 00:00–08:00 (next day) | none | none all year |
Houston compared with other cities
| City | Local time | Date | UTC offset | Difference from Houston | Over the next 12 months |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York | — | — | UTC-05:00 | 1 h ahead | all year |
| London | — | — | UTC+00:00 | 6 h ahead | 5 h ahead / 6 h ahead |
| Dubai | — | — | UTC+04:00 | 10 h ahead | 9 h ahead / 10 h ahead |
| New Delhi | — | — | UTC+05:30 | 11 h 30 min ahead | 10 h 30 min ahead / 11 h 30 min ahead |
| Singapore | — | — | UTC+08:00 | 14 h ahead | 13 h ahead / 14 h ahead |
| Tokyo | — | — | UTC+09:00 | 15 h ahead | 14 h ahead / 15 h ahead |
| Sydney | — | — | UTC+11:00 | 17 h ahead | 15 h ahead / 16 h ahead / 17 h ahead |
Nearby cities
Other places in this directory that keep America/Chicago time: Chicago and Dallas.
| City | Distance | Clock | Solar noon |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dallas | 360 km north | same clock | 6 minutes later |
| Atlanta | 1,130 km north-east | 1 h ahead | 44 minutes earlier |
| Mexico City | 1,210 km south | 1 h behind / the same | 15 minutes later |
| Denver | 1,410 km north-west | 1 h behind | 38 minutes later |
| Havana | 1,490 km south-east | 1 h ahead | 52 minutes earlier |
| Chicago | 1,520 km north-east | same clock | 31 minutes earlier |
| Miami | 1,560 km east | 1 h ahead | 1 h 1 min earlier |
| Phoenix | 1,630 km west | 2 h behind / 1 h behind | 1 h 7 min later |
No city in this directory on another identifier keeps exactly Houston’s clock.
Time zone rules: IANA tz database release 2026c, applied when this page was generated on 2026-11-02.
Frequently asked questions
What time zone is Houston in?
Houston keeps America/Chicago, Central Standard Time, at UTC-06:00, moving to Central Daylight Time (UTC-05:00) during summer time. The identifier is named after Chicago; Houston has shown the same time as Chicago since at least 1970.
Is all of the United States on the same time as Houston?
No. The tz database entries for the United States keep 6 different standard times, from UTC-10:00 (Honolulu) to UTC-05:00 (New York). Houston keeps one in between, with 4 lower and 1 higher.
Which other countries keep exactly the same time as Houston?
Canada (Rankin Inlet, Resolute and Winnipeg) and Mexico (Matamoros and Ojinaga) keep exactly Houston’s clock, changing on the same dates. Within the United States, 6 other tz database entries match it too.
What is the time difference between Houston and Atlanta?
The clock in Atlanta, the United States, about 1,130 km away and the closest city in this directory on a different clock, is 1 h ahead of Houston.